In recent years, there has been rapid advancement in display technology. For example, advancements in technologies such as liquid crystal display (LCD) technology, organic light emitting diode (OLED) display technology, and other similar technologies have resulted in the development of display panels that are often capable of displaying full color, high resolution graphics. Moreover, the slim depth profile and continued reduction in cost of these displays have resulted in the integration of displays into a variety of consumer products that heretofore lacked such displays. For example, household appliances, such as refrigerators, washing machines, and the like, now often include flat panel displays that are used to display a graphical user interface that may be used to display appliance operating status information and, in the cause of touch screen displays, to control appliance operation.
Concurrent with the evolution in display technology, there has been an ongoing development in low cost home networking solutions as well as increasing consumer sophistication in deploying and maintaining home local area networks, such as wireless local area networks (WLANs). As a result, home local area networks are now ubiquitous and an increasing number of consumer products now offer networking capability supporting connectivity to a home local area network, as progress continues to be made toward the conceptual “connected home” in which a multitude of consumer devices within a home are interconnected via a network for purposes of information sharing and automation among multiple devices in a home. For example, many household appliances now offer network connectivity supporting connectivity to a home local area network as well as communication with devices outside the home local area network via the Internet.